Hey guys, i am new to beetles and my missus and myself just bought one for a project, its a 1971 superbug, no mods apart from a fibreglass bootlid with wing, i hear that porsche engines can be adapted, whats involved? any info would be greatly appreciated....
cheers

Lots of money for a start

What motor were you thinking?? It makes a big difference to how hard it is to fit, not to mention brake/suspension upgrades needed to cope.

You may be better upgrading the stock motor, there's heaps of go fast bit's out there.

Isn't the 2.0L Porsche 914 engine same/similar to the Type 4 kombi donk?

Yep similar (different heads/carbs/cam etc) but still requires mods to fit into bug.
There's a number of bugs out there with 2L kombi motors in them. Cheaper to build a fast stock motor though.

its a porsche designed engine but very different to the one in a 914. still a type 4 would give you loads of power for a bug. and would probobly end out being cheaper than buying a 1776cc or 1835cc or 1916cc type 1 engine.

just find a 2 litre kombi thats not doing anyting and ask to buy the engine

u might need to fit a booster to your front brakes for compliance.

yep a flat 6 porsche engine is a fair big bigger and longer and heavier than a beetle engine. There is no point in putting it in, specially when you could put in a Subaru EJ20T. Also having all the weight of a flat six would probably screw up handling. Best to stick to VW engines if you are new to dubs.

Like others said, get the handling, braking and suspension sorted before you do anything to the engine.
a brake booster wont increase your braking capacity, it will only lessen pedal effort.

yes but a superbug already has disc brakes so it can comply for the 2 litre engine but a booster surely helps with the braking even though it doesnt increase braking power.

well i really know bugger all about bugs, this is my first, thats why i am asking, so any recommendations? its not imperitive it be a porsche engine, what i am after is a bit of go, but reliability is the number one requirement as the missus will drive it to work, i dont mind on cost so much but i dont wish to spend thousands,
cheers

[Edited on 19-1-2005 by Felony]

the flat 6 wont fit in with out pannel mods but the 914/4 motor is the same case as the t4 2L will bolt straight in

there's an old saying.

Fast - Reliable - Cheap

you can only pick two

best place is start is how much $$$ can you spend. A stock rebuild goes from about $1500 to about $2500. Anything high performance goes higher and higher price.

i have a whole page from my ' 'newfound' hotrod your vw book ' that talks about the waste of time and expense using porsche... and that was in 1969.

today youd be better spent going subaru. you can get a motor only a few years old. good nick and readily with parts available. plus all the other bits required to convert. their are a lot on here who do it, and it would probably be a lot cheaper than trying porsche....